The Street Cats of Athens

Walking down the back of The Acropolis, we ran into a homeless man playing a wooden flute, seemingly holding court with an audience of music-loving stray cats. Such a beautiful sight and one I’ll always remember, but I felt my camera would’ve been an intrusion, so I kept walking.

A bit further on, we encountered another gang of cats…

Stray cats are part of the Athenian landscape, and people seem to kindly accept them. I wrote in an earlier post about the cat that wandered into the wine bar without anyone batting an eye. The black kitten and the tabby pictured above make their home base at a café whose owner feeds and waters them, and I even saw a security guard at the Parliament building petting a stray. It makes me happy to see people treating animals kindly, and this left me with a very positive impression of Greeks.

Overall, the cats seem to be well cared for, which sadly wasn’t the case in Thailand. I just hope there’s a trap and spay/neuter program in Athens and that people look out for them when they’re sick. Animals have a big and special place in my heart and their suffering is difficult for me to reconcile. It’s amazing I managed to leave Thailand without a suitcase full of stray cats ;-)

What gorgeous cats! I love them so much and would probably love to bump into a group like that on the street! It would be pretty neat to see. That’s quite a few to see together. My kids would have a hay day running into them too! So fun

It’s just so nice to see that our furry feline friends have a safe, comfortable place to call home! I never would’ve imagined a whole community taking to their presence with such grace. Sadly, strays around my neck of the woods don’t get treated with as much love….unless of course they come to my door! ;)

We also have a lot of stray cats and dogs here lurking in the streets. Some barangays put them inside cages, sell them, or donate them away to willing owners. The worst thing we have heard is that the cats were eaten or sold as food. That’s really horrible.

Oh how lovely, that man with the wooden flute sounds like the pied piper of cats, how quaint and whimsical that is! I love cats, as does my little boy, he calls them miaows so if he saw the cats on the streets of Athens he’d be amazed. I’m so glad to hear that they’re so well looked after, it’s always great to hear of people being kind to animals.

That’s a lot of cats! I like how they all look different in their color and markings. However, I’d be a little nervous to approach such a large gathering of cats, dogs or any other type of animal since they would outnumber me.